Back in 2012(!) when I bought Danny’s Quaife’d BE box off him it came with a Satchshift. At which point I sold my MA version and cracked on with the then project car which was the 16v White S2 Rallye. The thing was that in doing this car, I’d welded in a trimmed down version of the stick gator mounting plate so I didn’t have one and I’d forgotten that. So the starting point for fitting the Satchshift to this car was to make a bit of tube.

I’d not made a tube out of flat sheet before but I found a paint tin that was the right diameter so used that as a form to bend the steel around. Ended up with this – it’s pretty much round.

Did the necessary prep, which included blanking the original gear lever hole and welded bit of formed tube in.

Now having fitted a number of Satchshifts over the years any one who has also done it will know that it is enough of a faff to bolt the bits onto the bulkhead with the interior stripped and an empty bay, but it’s really a two person job with the car assembled. To remedy that I welded nuts onto the bulkhead so no spanners are needed – just a hex key

I also don’t know how the shell was used previously as it had the cutout and drilled holes for the upper pushrod gator, but the other holes weren’t drilled which was a bit weird

Did some fabrication. Made this. Side by side comparison with old and new:

Tidied up the main panel. Lightened and swaged. Those who have looked closely will know the panel is not symmetrical due to the design around the rad. It turns out the aluminium plates are also not positioned equally, so I have redrilled one side to match the other.

Welded the bottom nut for the bonnet pins on too. just need to weld on the reinforcement piece now.